Sunday, August 8, 2010

Disconnected

I know I rely heavily on my computer and access to the internet for many things, but it's really highlighted when that access is cut off. I've been away from home since evening time on July 30th. We left our home to go spend the night at my parents house so we'd be closer to the airport for our Saturday morning departure, plus mom was going with TJ and I. We got to Idaho mid day and left Sunday for a 4 night camping trip up in the mountains. Didn't even have cell phone service there! I thought once we got back to the Boise area I'd be able to spend some time at the local library or McDonald's to use their wi-fi while TJ played. Friday morning we headed out, ordered food that I didn't really want, TJ started playing, just to find out that their wi fi had issues. I could connect to any of the 3 networks available, but none of them allowed me to actually use the internet. Big let down! So I found a coffee shop and sat in the car (to me, coffee smells like skunk spray, so I wasn't about to sit inside) to upload 2 posts I had written the night before.

My aunt has internet access for her computer, I just can't connect it to mine, and there are things I can't do w/o my laptop, or just simply prefer to do with my own computer, so I've been able to check email, but not really read all the newsletters I get, or connect to my dashboard here, or other forums, because I don't want to take up that much time when we should be visiting. This morning my mom and I decided to go looking for a place where I could do some of the things I was hoping to do while gone-namely planning. So I've been sitting on the patio of a coffee house for over an hour and the only real planning I've done is to decide which children's books are going to be the weekly focus for the first 4 weeks of homeschool. I logged in to my library's web site (something I couldn't do easily on someone else's computer) and placed holds on the books we don't already own, and on accompanying items like books on tape and video. Since my mom is with me, and she's already drank a cup of espresso and had biscotti and read the local paper, I guess it's time to go. She's getting bored. My aunt kept TJ with her, so at least he's not here slowing down progress.

A good portion of the planning I want to do can be done without internet access, but it's so nice to have it just in case! I could sit here all day (well, not really cuz there's not an outlet and the battery won't last that long) and plan, read blogs, reply to email, watch video's from online classes, and call it a great day! Maybe when I get home Tony will give me that gift before we get back into the rhythm of life at home. My goal while gone was to have assessed what's working and what isn't in order to create better harmony at home for all 3 of us. Maybe I can still do it.